The new Weigela cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Ken Rigney in his garden in South Hampton, United Kingdom. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Weigela varieties with unique ornamental habits. The inventor has no record of when open pollination resulting in this new variety occurred.
The new variety was identified as a potentially interesting selection in April 2001 by the inventor. He discovered the interesting seedling in a planting of undistributed, unpatented proprietary seedlings resulting from his breeding program. The exact parents cannot be identified.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘MONRIGNEY’ by softwood cuttings was first performed during June of 2001 at in the inventor's garden in South Hampton, United Kingdom. Subsequent asexual propagation has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in 4 successive generations.